This statement is issued to call public attention to the seizure by the Nigerian Customs Service of a “Living Memorial” to Ken Saro-Wiwa donated by Platform - friends and colleagues in the United Kingdom - to the Ogoni people.

The memorial is a sculpture of a bus made in remembrance of the struggles of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni environmental rights activists who were sentenced and killed by a military tribunal in November 1995. The Bus calls attention to the environmental degradation and economic deprivation, in which the Ogoni people live, despite being naturally blessed with enormous deposits of crude oil. The people of Ogoniland continue to fight for remediation of their lands and compensation after the devastation caused by oil multinationals such as Shell.

Were you surprised by President Buhari’s directives for the clean up of Ogoniland?

IT didn’t come to me as a surprise because I was a member of the negotiating team. If I were not a member of the team, I would have been very surprised or shocked that in less than two months after Buhari took office he could muster the courage and political will to implement the UNEP report. I was excited that people could do what they said they would do.

Why did Jonathan-led administration dump the report?

I think Jonathan allowed the Petroleum Minister to manipulate him. He didn’t have a direction and that was why apart from not implementing the UNEP report on Ogoniland, he did not do anything for Niger Delta people. Jonathan did not have the political will to implement the report and we are so shocked that Jonathan, who is a direct beneficiary of the Ogoni struggle, could not implement the report. Ogoni people are shocked. For Buhari to want to implement the report, it shows it was a case of lack of political will on the part of Jonathan and lack of control of his government.

THE YOUNG OGONI DIDN’T NEED TO SEE ORONTO DOUGLAS, YET HE INSPIRED US! - A TRIBUTE BY CELESTINE AKPOBARI

As a young Ogoni in the 90s and at the peak of the State and sHELL’s persecution of Ogoni people and their environment, it was that name “ORONTO” that we started hearing as the new “driver” of our legitimate struggle, especially as every active Ogoni at the time, has either been driven into the bush by then Col Paul Okuntimo, sent on forced exile or to their early graves.

We were told of how the spirit of Ken Saro Wiwa possessed him and how he was beaten severally and detained by the rampaging army for daring to champion the Ogoni campaign at a time the Persecutors thought it was all over. I was later to meet and talk with the bold and very courageous Oronto Douglas in person at the famous No 13 Agudama Street in D/Line, Port Harcourt when as a Trade Union Activist, I paid a visit to Dr Isaac Ásume’ Osuoka (Sankara), Godwin Frank and Jaye Gaskia who were working behind the scene to liberate the enslaved workers of Risonpalm Ltd under my leadership.

While the Ogoni are still struggling to understand reasons for non implementation of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Report over four years after its release, more polluted sites not yet visited by Civil Society Organisations and environmental right activists, have been discovered in Ogoni. On his first visit to one of such community (B-Dere, abandoned original home) in Gokana Local Government Area, Celestine AkpoBari, the National Coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Forum (OSF) opined that he was shocked and disturbed that there were still unknown polluted sites in Ogoni than he imagined. Ironically, the regular trade mark from HYPREP was already there before his arrival.

HYPREP Prohibition Sign Post at the abandoned community water front

The big question is, why would HYPREP and other State Agencies know all polluted sites in Ogoni and do nothing to hasten clean up and restoration of the environment.